My story

Well, I should begin this as my Mom's story...... Last March, my Mom went for her yearly physical. Everything checked out fine. She then went for her annual mammogram screening. A day later, the doctor asked her to come back because there was something on the x-ray. Probably just a shadow, but they just wanted to be sure. It wasn't. My Mom had a small lump that was not detected by her doctor during a breast exam. Cancer. It was really unbelievable for me. How could my Mom get cancer ? Was she going to get sick ? Die ? I am 34, but this is my MOM ! She can't die ! I cried, spent some time praying and then decided that the most important thing that I could do is be there for my Mom.
I went with my Mom to her first appointment to meet the team of doctors that would take care of her for the next few months. Surgeons, oncologists, radiologists.... It was a lot to take in. My Mom took it like a champ ! She decided to face this thing head on. Including genetic testing. She made an appointment soon after for genetic counseling and was tested. Her result was BRCA2+.

My sisters, brother and I all made a group appointment with the genetic counselor to go over the BRCA testing as well. Some of us were tested that day. Unfortunately, my insurance carrier was being difficult and I had to return and have the testing done again.

Then the results came back.... My oldest sister was negative. Good news ! Another sister got her results in an appointment right after. Positive. Another sister's result- Positive. My two positive sisters decided right away to go through with prophylactic surgeries. That just seemed CRAZY to me ! Since I had to have my test re-done, I had a little time to think about things. A positive result would not mean the end of the world. I would just be extra careful about monitoring and be sure to get all of the MRI's and mammograms that I could. I am a pretty optimistic person. I figured I would probably be negative anyway, so there was no point worrying about it.

My appointment with the genetic counselor came. The result was positive. OK. I was a bit overwhelmed for a minute, but no big deal. This was not going to change my life, right ? I'll just get the extra mammograms and go to the doctor more. I met with an oncologist next, but I was pretty distracted and confused. She said that I could just remove my ovaries and that would help prevent ovarian cancer. I could do that. I am done having kids, so no big deal. I'll just do that. Well, that was not really what she said, just what I heard. I decided to give my self a month, do some research and meet with my gynecologist and see what she thought. I wanted to be sure to make a decision on my own, not to be influenced by my sisters. They were going to cut off their breasts for crying out loud ! Who does that ?!?!?!?

Even going into my appointment, I was pretty sure I was just going to take out the ovaries and be on my merry way. Well, it's not that easy. My doc explained that leaving the breasts after the oophorectomy was not a good idea. By removing the ovaries, you are starting an immediate menopause, which is no fun. By adding hormones to replace those lost from the ovaries, you are at an increased risk of breast cancer. Add that to my already increased risk = Not good. Pretty much the best chance of beating this thing was to do both the oophorectomy and the mastectomy. But I'm only 34 ! I love my boobs ! I can't cut them off. They are a part of me.

Over-whelming. I think that this was the first day that I realized that this was serious. It was not something that I could take a pill for or change. It was not going to go away on it's own. This was life-changing.

So, I made appointments that I never thought that I would have to make at my age. Surgeons, plastic surgeons. Did I mention that I hate going to the doctor ? Really. The only time that I had gone in the last 20 years was to the OB/GYN when I was pregnant with my kids. I am very modest and embarrassed to show my "motherly" figure to anyone. After these appointments, I had been naked and groped by more people in a month than I had been in my entire life !

I just recently had my oophorectomy, but I'll tell you all about that in another post. :)